Former Farwell man in jail for M.P. murder

By Pat Maurer

Review Correspondent

A 25-year-old former Farwell man remains jailed in Isabella County on open murder charges.

Curtis Richard Leachman, of Mt. Pleasant, was arraigned Monday on open murder charges related to the Saturday morning stabbing death of 20-year-old Tyrone Stanley in a hallway outside a downtown Mt. Pleasant apartment. Leachman was also charged with witness intimidation for allegedly threatening witnesses to the murder.

Open murder is a felony punishable by life in prison. Witness intimidation related to a felony-life charge carries a penalty of ten years. Isabella County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Robert Holmes asked for a $2.5 million bond. Circuit Judge William Rush set Leachman’s bond at $1 million and assigned him a court-appointed attorney.

Mt Pleasant City Police reported they were called to the South Main Street apartment around 4:24 a.m. November 17.

When officers arrived they said they found Stanley suffering from a knife wound. He had reportedly been stabbed twice. He was taken to McLaren Central Michigan Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Officers identified Leachman as a suspect, arrested him and lodged him at the Isabella County Jail.

Reportedly Leachman and Stanley were friends. A fight between the two reportedly began at a party in another apartment. Stanley was stabbed twice in the common entrance hallway for the two apartments above a vacant business in downtown Mt. Pleasant next to the Firstbank building.

Leachman was not a tenant of the apartment but was staying there as the guest of a friend while she was recovering elsewhere from an auto accident.

According to information from a Facebook source, Leachman had lived in a “boys’ home” in Farwell some time ago and still has family in the Farwell area. The source said he was evicted from the home and moved to Saginaw before he moved to Mt. Pleasant, where he may have been living on the streets.

Leachman had a history of violence dating back into his teens and had been charged with assault both as a juvenile and an adult, and was charged and convicted several times for breaking and entering, larceny and domestic violence.

He had been charged and convicted multiple times over the past seven years and had been in jail as recently as this fall for another incident of domestic violence.

A preliminary examination was set for yesterday (Thursday) in front of Judge Rush.